Biography: Rick Perry was born March 4, 1950, to Joseph Ray and Amelia June Perry. He is married to Anita Thigpen, with whom he has two grown children, Griffin and Sydney.

Perry graduated from Texas A & M University with a degree in animal science. A Corps of Cadets member in college, he became an Air Force officer, flying C-130 cargo planes and attaining the rank of captain.

He won election for Texas lieutenant governor in 1998 but became governor in December 2000 when George W. Bush resigned to become president. Perry was elected to a full governor's term in 2002, then won reelection in 2006 and 2010, ending his service in early 2015 as the longest-serving Texas governor in history.

His previous service included two terms in the Texas House of Representatives -- as a Democrat. He chaired Al Gore's presidential campaign in Texas in 1988. Perry changed parties to Republican in 1989, and in 1990 won election as a Republican to become Texas agricultural commissioner.

Notable moments: Perry was indicted by a Travis County, Texas, grand jury in 2014 on charges of abuse of power and coercion of a public official -- charges he says are baseless and politically motivated. Some prominent law professors agree.

The charges came after Perry threatened to veto funding of the state public integrity unit unless the Travis County district attorney who ran it resigned. The district attorney, Rosemary Lehmberg, had pleaded guilty to drunken driving and served jail time. Perry said she needed to resign -- and that his threat to veto the budget of the public integrity unit's funding, which he followed up on with an actual veto, was proper.

Prosecutors said the threat against a department's funding was a politically motivated abuse of power by the Republican governor. Perry, whose term ended in January, is fighting the charges.

During a Republican presidential debate in late 2011, Perry said he would eliminate three federal departments -- but couldn't remember which three. "It is three agencies of government when I get there that are gone," he said. "Commerce, Education, and the -- what's the third one there? Let's see." He later remembered: It was the Department of Energy.

His memory lapse was blamed on fatigue from a lack of exercise and sleep, following back surgery. He told the Des Moines Register, "You have fusion on your back, and it takes you a while to get back on your game."